Summary of Eyal Press' Dirty Work

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Eyal Press's Dirty Work in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: Drone pilots who carry out targeted assassinations. Undocumented immigrants who man the “kill floors” of industrial slaughterhouses. Guards who patrol the wards of the United States’ most violent and abusive prisons. In Dirty Work, Eyal Press offers a paradigm-shifting view of the moral landscape of contemporary America through the stories of people who perform society’s most ethically troubling jobs. As Press shows, we are increasingly shielded and distanced from an array of morally questionable activities that other, less privileged people perform in our name.

The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn unprecedented attention to essential workers, and to the health and safety risks to which workers in prisons and slaughterhouses are exposed. But Dirty Work examines a less familiar set of occupational hazards: psychological and emotional hardships such as stigma, shame, PTSD, and moral injury. These burdens fall disproportionately on low-income workers, undocumented immigrants, women, and people of color.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Dec 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781669340782

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

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Insights on Eyal Press's Dirty Work

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The author’s friend worked at a Florida prison, and would overhear guards joking about starving prisoners. She was advised by her boss to not listen to these comments, as they came from security guards.

#2

The author’s friend Harriet was a psychiatric technician who was assigned to work in the psych unit at the prison. She was new to the job, and while she felt the institution was not living up to its promises, she didn’t know how to address her concerns without getting fired.

#3

When she was younger, Harriet struggled with her weight and had a hard time controlling her eating habits. She also did a lot of drugs, but eventually got herself into college and graduated with a degree in psychology. She wanted to be a forensic psychologist, but was unable to find work due to the Great Recession.

#4

The deinstitutionalization of people with mental illnesses led to the rise of the prison system, which in turn affected African Americans disproportionately.

#5

In the 1990s, prisons in America became de facto asylums for people with psychiatric disorders.

#6

The prison system is extremely dangerous for mental health workers, as they are frequently harassed and assaulted by prisoners.

#7

While working at the prison, a nurse named Harriet was assigned to escort Darren Rainey, a mentally ill prisoner, to the shower. She heard from several inmates that Rainey wasn’t the first person to be locked in that shower, and was subsequently killed.

#8

The author’s wife, who was also a patient at the prison, was put in solitary confinement after she tried to stop an abuse victim from being beaten.

#9

The author’s interview with a woman named Harriet revealed how difficult it is to speak out against abuse in prison.

#10

While some of the guards